How did initiatives that benefit sustainable agriculture, family farms and rural communities fare in the 2007 Legislature? Well, it began on a positive note when in February the Agriculture, Rural… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Food and Sustainable Agriculture
Farm Policy for Dummies (Like Me)
Word of the day: “cornification.” Cornification, in a nutshell, is the takeover of a diverse landscape by one mighty plant: corn. The “Effects of Cornification” graphic on page 17 of… Read more »
Help Deposit Greens in the Food Bank
The U.S. is nothing if not a nation of paradoxes. Consider these statistics from Daniel Imhoff’s new book, Food Fight: Americans spend $110 billion annually on illnesses caused by obesity,… Read more »
Governor Vetos Two Good Biofuels Provisions
The Governor signed the Agriculture Finance Omnibus Bill last Friday and while the press release talks about how it is good for energy and the environment (and some of it is), it neglects to mention that he line-item vetoed two funding items supported by Clean Energy Minnesota (CEM) to encourage better fuel sources for ethanol.
Homeland Insecurity
The recent news that a chemical used in plastics and fertilizer has made its way into our food system probably suppressed more appetites than a screening of Supersize Me. The… Read more »
Hospital Food That Won’t Make You Sick
Perhaps one of the richest ironies around is that our hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities are often associated with things that aren’t so healthy. Take, for example,… Read more »
Bees, Burners, and Steel
A few random items for your consideration: The loss of bees has been a hot topic lately. But as Mouse and Garden and the Star Tribune both point out today,… Read more »
A Chemical Kick to the Gut
One doesn’t need pugilistic experience to feel the effects of a “sucker punch.” We’ve all experienced different versions of the cheap shot in our daily lives—we’re expecting one thing and… Read more »
Pharmaceuticals & Factory Farms
Today’s news that an important class of drugs is no longer effective in treating gonorrhea is yet another sign that we’re losing the drug war. But this drug war isn’t… Read more »
Organics, Erosion & Carbon
During a recent committee hearing at the capitol, a legislator offered up an anthoritative-sounding agronomic nugget of information: organic farming is bad for the environment. Specifically, the argument was made… Read more »